Minecraft Clone Dragon Quest: Builders Releases Next January

I know calling something a “GAMENAME-clone” is a bit lame, but Dragon Quest: Builders is really making it difficult.

At Tokyo Game Show today, Square Enix showed off its latest Dragon Quest spin-off: Dragon Quest: Builders. I know calling stuff a “GAMENAME-clone” dates all the way back to Doom, but there really is no better way to describe this game than a Minecraft-clone. While the cinematic reveal trailer you can check out here doesn’t make it quite so obvious, once you start to see the actual gameplay (as in the video to the right), well. I’ll just let you decide for yourself if it’s worthy of the “Minecraft-clone” descriptor.

The game returns players to the original Dragon Quest‘s kingdom of Alefgard, and tasks players to restore the ruined kingdom by literally rebuilding it. Just like traditional Dragon Quest titles, it will be primarily an RPG with plenty of character building elements, and a single-player story.

The game will be exclusive to the PS4, PS3 and the PS Vita, and will arrive in Japan next January. There is a playable version of it on the show floor at Tokyo Game Show, which we can hopefully check out, so stay tuned for our hands-on preview of the game. There has been no word of a western release as of yet.